Turkey has lowest Covid-19 death rate in Europe, health minister says

Turkey also is currently passing the peak of the novel coronavirus pandemic but the drops in numbers must be consistent, Health Minister Koca said.

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca holds a press conference after attending the Science Board Meeting on Coronavirus via videoconference in Ankara, Turkey on April 29, 2020.
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Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca holds a press conference after attending the Science Board Meeting on Coronavirus via videoconference in Ankara, Turkey on April 29, 2020.

Turkey has the lowest death rate from coronavirus among the European countries, and that the country ranked 80th in the world, the country’s health minister said on Wednesday.

Turkey also is currently passing the peak of the novel coronavirus pandemic but the drops in numbers must be consistent, Fahrettin Koca added.

"The number of recovered patients in Turkey in the past 24 hours reached twice that of newly diagnosed patients," Koca said in a press conference following the meeting of the Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board in Ankara.

The coronavirus death rate in Turkey dropped for intubated patients from 74 percent to 14 percent, for intensive care patients from 58 percent to 10 percent, Koca added.

As for the coronavirus cases in the country, he said at least 7,428 healthcare workers have been infected with Covid-19, nearly 6.5 percent of all cases.

As part of the country's efforts to curb the virus' spread, Turkey has deployed 5,849 filiation teams for monitoring. The teams have so far detected 468,390 people who had been in contact with the virus, he noted.

Recoveries from virus pass one-third of cases

The number of recoveries from the novel coronavirus has exceeded 44,000 in Turkey, surpassing one-third of the total case tally, the country's health minister said on Wednesday.

A total of 5,231 patients were discharged from medical care after recovering from the virus in the last 24 hours alone, making a total of 44,022 patients discharged, Koca said on Twitter.

Koca also confirmed 89 additional fatalities from the virus over the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 3,081, citing Health Ministry data.

The total number of registered coronavirus cases rose to 117,589, as 2,936 more people tested positive for the virus.

Intensive care patient numbers continued to drop, with the number of new cases as predicted, according to Koca.

A total of 43,498 tests for the virus were conducted over the past 24 hours, with the total reaching 991,613, according to the data.

Schools could reopen on June 1, if normalcy returns

Turkey may reopen schools on June 1 if normalisation from the novel coronavirus pandemic proceeds as planned, the country's national education minister said on Wednesday.

"If the normalisation process continues as expected, we would open schools on June 1," Ziya Selcuk said in a live interview with CNN Turk.

Selcuk had previously announced that a remote education would continue in Turkey via TV and online lessons until May 31 as part of measures to stem the spread of Covid-19 in the country.

Turkey first began remote education on March 23, with Selcuk teaching the first lesson to millions of students nationwide.

After originating in China last December the novel coronavirus, has spread to at least 185 countries and regions across the world.

Europe and the US are currently the worst-hit regions.

The pandemic has killed more than 218,700 people, with total infections exceeding 3.14 million, while nearly 950,000 have recovered from the disease, according to figures compiled by the US-based Johns Hopkins University.

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